Safari (Day 3) Part 2

April 25th

Ok, so after our bush walk in the morning, we were all ready to get back out there to see what we could find. Mark was determined to find us lions & leopards to finish off the Big Five list. Yesterday we heard about some lions in a particular area. We looked and looked and drove for hours trying to find those guys to no avail. So today we had a big goal, we were going to find these animals, at least we hoped. And we started out pretty promising... right past the gates, we ran into this big guy.


Dugger Boy (buffalo)

The animals were out today.  It wasn't long before we ran into these guys.

We continued to look for lions and leopard and came across something that is very rare.



Ostrich

Apparently this guy and his buddy were a long way from home. When I told Mark that I saw an ostrich, he didn't even believe me. Seeing these guys was Mark's favorite part of the trip. He said it normally takes two days to drive to the area these guys "normally" are. So it was pretty fun to see them.

And just around the corner were these guys.


zebra

As we were driving around we found some adorable spotted hyena's and all the little babies. We just sat and watched for a while as they played, wrestled and slept.

As we drove around, we kept hearing about leopards and showing up and just missing them or driving by a place and then the leopard would come by right after we leave. There were so many times we stopped to talk to another tour vehicle and they would show us pictures and tell us how they had JUST seen a leopard right along the road. We even had 2 personal vehicles stop us and tell us they had seen leopards and we just kept missing them. It started to be the on going joke. People started to give us weird looks when they would tell us and we just started laughing.

But then it happened. Mark got the call. There were mating lions just off the road in the bush not to far from us. We took off! We were flying to get there, passing people left and right. We were so focused on these lions that we went flying past 3 giraffes & 4 white rhinos as if they were nothing! We made it. We got to the area that everyone was telling us there were lions. And in the bush, if you knew what you were looking for and had a good imagination, you could see them.

Can you see the lions?

We could see some movement every once in a while. We even heard some noises that Mark claimed were the animals mating. According to the information that was given to us, we learned that lions mate for 48 straight hours. They do the deed about every 20 minutes. So after they apparently did the deed, we decided to just sit and wait and see if they make a move any where. About 10 minutes later, we saw movement and then out of the bush, they showed up.

Oh my gosh, we were so excited. We were watching lions! It couldn't get any better... and then it did. They decided to put on a show for all of us.

Not only did they show us how baby lions are made, the continued to hang out and give us plenty of time to take a TON of pictures. They were super close to our vehicle but they were such calm animals. That sounds so weird but they were. There was only one time that they were happy with us but they were never aggressive or were ever really bothered by the fact that we were there. In the end, they walked down the road with us riding right beside us for about a mile and when they were done hanging out with us, they just walked off into the bush. You knew it was rare and incredible awesome when even Mark grabbed a camera and started to capture the experience.

So all of this excitement and it was only lunch time. We made a quick pit stop so Mark could show off his pictures to the other guys and Jed & I could keep freaking out about what we had just witnessed. I was still shaking from excitement, nervousness, and shock and we weren't done! So after a quick bit to eat, we were back on the road. We still had the illusive leopard to search for.

As we travelled around the park, we got up close and personal with quite a few more animals.

Some were a lot faster and we weren't able to get our cameras out fast enough. To end our unforgettable day, we were driving back to camp with the sun setting when we came upon a tour vehicle that was parked on the side of the road. Sometimes the guide is just telling stories about animals or plants and other times they see something. This stop was because they saw something. There it was a little off in the distance on top of this huge rock... a leopard.

We did it! We saw all of the big five animals in the park. We sat and watched as this leopard just enjoyed the last of the sun and realized she was watching over her cub. They didn't come and greet us like the lions but that was a okay by me. I learned my lesson about upsetting a momma with a baby around a few days ago. So we sat and watched until they headed off behind the rock.


Just down from the leopard, we saw this tree swaying back and forth. It was interesting cause there was really no wind and definitely not enough wind to make that tree sway that much. So we stopped to check it out. It was an elephant. This particular type of tree produces a sweet fruit that the elephants love and once they eat all the fruit, they will just eat the leaves since they are apparently kind of sweet too. Well, this elephant was clearly having withdraw from the berries and could reach the leaves, so he just started to shake the tree. Maybe in hopes that there might be more fruit or maybe to shake out a few leaves but either way, the swaying was not successful and out of what could be perceived as frustration of a huge elephant, it decided to completely uproot this tree. All of a sudden, this elephant just pushed the tree all the way to the ground with what seemed like very little energy or effort. We just sat there watching in awe and laughter. I still can't believe we watched him do that. Those are some powerful animals.

We finished the night with dinner and a liquor that is made from the fruit that the elephants love, Amarula (don't worry they didn't use the fruits from Kruger to make it) and I can understand why the elephant knocked over the tree for the fruit. It was good. It was the perfect way to end an incredible day.